Danny Phantom Unlimited
by King gunman
Summary: After a near fatal accident in his parents lab, Danny Fenton is granted the powers of the supernatural. He finds that he is the only standing between Amity Park and hordes of undead, sinister demons, and vengeful spectors.
1. Chapter 1

**Danny Phantom Unlimited**

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Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or any related character, all of which are property of Nickelodeon Studios.**

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**The Boy Who Didn't Quite Live… **

Danny Fenton's life was never normal, anyone that lived within the city limits could tell you that. Or, more specifically, the Fenton's were not normal. One could immediately spot their home from several blocks away as it was the only one with a giant saucer on top, further more was the large green neon sign hanging on the side of the building that spelled out "Fenton Works" with an adjoining arrow pointed right at the front door.

Of course, this was not the most abnormal feature of the home. The neighbors would often complain of odd noises, similar to the sound of steam shooting out of a kettle, but at ten times the volume and with a healthy does of dying cat. Oh, did I forget to mention the explosions? Yeah I think I did.

This could all be explained by one simple fact: Danny Fenton's parents where ghost hunters. Literally. While both very eccentric, Maddie and Jack Fenton were true geniuses. Together they had created viable energy weapons, personal force fields, and an automatic fudge machine, which was really Jack's own personal endeavor. The man had an unhealthy obsession with fudge. But in his defense, it's fudge!

Then there was his sister, Jasmine. She was, while not as seemingly crazy as her parents, she was equally obsessive. Jazz, as her parents and friends called her, would stay up to the wee hours studying and reading books by psychologists and doctors regarding mental health and psychological disorders. Danny was fairly certain that she suffered from a few, herself.

Danny often struggled for a normal life, or some semblance of it. Danny only had two real friends, Samantha Manson or as she preferred, Sam, and Tucker Foley. Sam was a self describe Goth. She kept her hair short with the exception of a small bob of hair on the top of her head. Heavy combat boots with purple straps were her preferred footwear and a miniskirt and tub top, both of which where of course, black.

Tucker Foley, or just Tuck to his friends i.e. Danny and Sam dressed in "nerd sheikh", orange cargo pants, yellow sweat shirt, and red beanie along with his ever present PDA and numerous other technological gadgets.

The three had been friends for as long as either could remember, each sharing the backgrounds of a not-so-happy-home-life, unpopularity and chronic bullying. Their taste in music varied here and there but each usually enjoyed the taste of the other two. Recreationally speaking, Tucker and Danny were the closest, loving video games, going to the arcade, and racing RC's, while Sam preferred poetry, reading, art, and raging against the machine. Food however was their biggest divide. Sam was an Ultra-recycleo-vegetarian, meaning she took vegetarianism to an extreme, often bringing a layer of TOPSOIL for lunch. Tucker was a pure carnivore, living on a diet that consisted of nearly all meat and bacon grease. Danny was the median between the two, eating both vegetation and meat but preferred a thick steak over a, side salad any day.

Together they struggled through the early years of High School and teen hood. There most common hangouts, were the Nasty Burger, which was actually called the Tasty Burger but one-night vandals took down the T and replaced it with an N making it the Nasty Burger, which really fit the place far better, Echo Park and Danny's parent's basement laboratory which was where they were as this little tale begins.

Perhaps the least bizarre thing about the exceedingly large basement was the copious amount of blue, which was only amplified by the bright white grout between each of the tiles. Long tables were placed along the left and right walls with smaller islands scattered about seemingly at random. On top of table and islands were masses of blueprints, beakers and test tubes filled with bizarre and spectrally colored chemicals, and most of all, what appeared to be weaponry.

The weaponry was in fact, far more than that. Each piece was the culmination of over two decades worth of reasearch and development on the part of Jack and Maddie Fenton. The weapons were created to combat entities from beyond the veil. For those of you that lack a poetic mind, they were built to fight ghosts.

In the center of the back wall was a seven by seven foot hexagonal opening, marked out by heavy steel plates that made up the outside of the, hole. The hole led into a spiraling pathway that grew narrower and narrower until it reached a sharp point thirty feet down. Cables and wiring lined every inch of the hole. Standing before the great hole in the wall was Jack, and Maddie Fenton.

Jack was a man of great height (and girth) dressed in an extremely loud orange jumpsuit. Jack's night black hair was very short, nearly a buzz cut on his flat, tabletop head and graying on the sides.

Maddie, in stark contrast to her husband of nearly twenty-three years, was petite. Dressed in a stylish, powder blue jumpsuit and red goggles, which hid her thick head of reddish-orange, hair and blue eyes.

Both their hearts raced, adrenalin jumped through their veins. Soon, Jack and Maddie's dream would become a reality.

Jack turned to the three teenagers that stood away from the couple, eagerly waiting for the show to start. He cleared his throat loudly and said in his booming, listless voice, "All right kids! You three are about to bare witness to the greatest achievement in human history!" The large, jump suit wearing man knelt down and picked up to long, gray cables. The cable in his left hand trailed back to the hole in the wall, while the cable in his right hand led back to a socket in the wall.

Sam leaned her head toward Danny and muttered out of the corner of her mouth, "Think this is going to work?"

Danny gave a silent shrug. "Either way, it got me out of listening to Jazz."

"Hold up honey!" Maddie cried. She took the cable leading into the wall away from her husband. "Let's do this, together."

Jack smiled wide and gave a massive node. "On the count of three…One…Two…Three!" Jack and Maddie joined the two cables, completing a circuit that sent a massive amount of power straight into the Ghost Portal. The walls crackled and glowed a brilliant emerald.

The stench of ozone filled the air. A mechanical whining echoed in the blue basement. The space within the Portal distorted and shimmered, serpentine shapes slithering and twisting in the mechanical cavern. Finally, it exploded in a wave of shimmering, pulsating emerald light! And that was it. Nothing. Noda. Zilch. Zippo. The emerald light had simply dissipated three seconds after it had appeared.

The three teenagers were quite under whelmed and the two ghost hunters were in shock.

Jack slummed to the floor on his knees. His eyes glazed over and his mouth hanging open like the muscles in his jaw had been ripped out. "B-but it worked…perfectly in…in the simulations…wh-why doesn't it work?" Jack blubbered.

Maddie knelt beside her crushed and broken husband. She put her hands gently on Jack's shoulders and in a voice that only a truly loving wife or mother can have said, "It's alright dear. Sometimes things just need a little tweaking to make it work." Maddie helped Jack to his feet and gently massaged his back. "How about we head upstairs and have some fudge whi-"

That was as far as Maddie got for at the mention of fudge Jack shot throw the heavy metal door, up the stairs and into the kitchen where he was raiding for the delicious chocolaty treat.

The blue haz-mat suited woman gave a loving sigh. She turned to the children as she walked out the basement laboratory. "I'm going to go make sure Jack doesn't choke on the fudge. You kids can stay down here if you want, just be careful."

Maddie hurried up the stairs, the heels of her haz-mat suit clacking against each step, as the sound similar to that of a walrus about to regurgitate a full grown man reached their ears. "JACK! I've told you not to try and eat the whole pan at once!"

"Well, this was a great way to spend a weekend afternoon." Said Tucker with a roll of his eyes. "Not like I had anything better to do."

Danny looked at his best friend with a dull stare. "You didn't."

"True, but I still could have went to the mall and get a date!" replied Tucker as he looked over mechanical looking thermos in his hands.

"That would be a sign of the Apocalypse Tuck." Sam said. The Goth girl was seemingly entranced by the failed experiment that was the Ghost Portal. Her nose twitched from the lingering stench of Ozone and of something else that she just couldn't put her finger on. She chewed on her bottom lip as her mind raced. With quick, rapid steps, Sam stood before the doorway to a theoretical plain of existence. She traced her hand of the metal rim, feeling the still warm surface. Sam suddenly spun around to face Danny and Tucker, both of whom were looking at her with mildly curious eyes.

"Why don't you go in there and check it out Danny?"

Danny was taken back by Sam's sudden, odd, question. "Why?"

"Don't you want to help your mom and dad out? You saw how disappointed they were when this thing didn't work." Reasoned Sam who had stepped away from the Portal. "Think about it, if you were able to find out what caused it not work, you'd be the one getting praise instead of _Jazz_!"

That got Danny's attention. Like a cheetah, Danny was over to the lockers that had been pushed into the right corner. Grabbing the latch with two of his fingers, Danny opened the locker which was filled with a number of haz-mat suits, most of which were screaming orange and fitted for Jack.

He dug through the hanging suits until, with a cry of "ah-ha", he withdrew a suit that was just the right size for him. The haz-mat suit was white for the most part, almost painfully so. The boots, really just thicker section made from a polymer that his parents had invented, and gloves were deep black. Along with the large, circular collar, it was the only break in the blinding field of white.

Danny pulled down the zipper in the back, all the way down to the suits butt section, and walked over to a stool and sat down. Not bothering to take off his shoes, or any of his clothes for rather understandable reasons, Danny slid his right foot into the suit and down its leg with only minimal struggle. Danny wasn't worried about tearing the suit; it was made from an incredible resilient fabric that could take a good quality, hunting knife to tear through.

Putting his other leg in, Danny stood up and pulled the sides of the open suit and put his left arm into the sleeve, followed by his right arm. Turning his back to his friends, he looked over his shoulder at the pair.

"Zip me up?"

Tucker was the one to comply. He grabbed the small, metal tag and pulled up, closing the suit up and readying it for a short exploratory mission into the strange, technological failure.

"Looking good man." Tucker said, stifling a laugh in the palm of his hand.

Danny furrowed his brow at his long time friend. "What? What's so funny?"

Sam gave him the answer by grabbing his chest and pealing off a sticker of his father's smile visage. "I think this might be it." She said with a snide grin. She balled the rather abominable decoration up and tossed it into a small wastebasket.

"Ten points!" Tucker exclaimed, still laughing.

Danny massaged his temples in a mixture of embarrassment and exasperation. "Dear God, I can't believe he stuck that thing on my suit!" Danny moved over to the gaping hole in the wall, which suddenly seemed three hundred times bigger. He managed a nervous smile. "I've always wondered what kind of super cool things could be on the other side of this thing. Wish me luck guys."

With that, Danny ventured into the inactive Portal, his path barely illuminated by the lights from his parent's lab behind him. He gulped down a breath of air as a sense of dread began to well within his stomach as he went deeper into the Portal.

Maybe it was the feeling of fear, or simply he was trying to maintain his balance in the passage as it grew narrower, but Danny did something that would cause shockwaves through his, and many others lives, for long time to come. With he left hand, Danny groped along the side of the wall, as he tried to find a fraid wire or a broken connection. What did find was his hand sank a little farther than he thought it would. Before he could look to see what had caused this, there was a great big flash. Danny had found the 'on' button.

Danny's vision was washed in a field of varying shades green. His body was on fire with pain and agony, as if each of his atom's was being ripped away. He choked out a silent scream that would shatter the strongest man's soul into a thousand pieces. Danny felt his form being pulled and twisted this way and that by forces far beyond mortal understanding. Daniel felt as if is very soul, his essence, was being ripped in two.

Suddenly, images, foggy and distorted, that touched his barest of peripheral vision. Forms that were alien to him, yet at same time inspired a sense of déjà vu. He heard the voices, softly at first, but grew louder and louder, becoming like a rapid drumming in his head, only catching the quickest "notes".

Dude you've got… The greatest hunter… 

_DIPSTICK!_

_Denounce your…_

_Dear Ma…_

_I shall this little electronic…_

_Demon Brothers are…_

_BEWARE!_

_Leave it to the professionals kid…_

_So much stronger…_

_We're the X-Men…_

_The Amazing…_

_You're a dork…_

_Lord Ghoul…_

_You could get…_

_Funny, I've never called myself that…_

_All I have ever…_

_Drag you down!_

"GAAAHHH!"

Danny shot up, drenched in sweet, his heart feeling like it was ready to explode.

"Oh thank goodness Danny!"

The youngest Fenton was left gasping for breath as his mother grabbed him in a sudden, and crushing squeeze. He looked about and found himself in his room surrounded by his family, all of who looked crazed with joy.

"Gave us a bit of a scare, there son!" Jack said, leaning on the edge of his bed.

"I'm amazed you survived." Jazz spoke up, pushing her long red hair out of her eyes. "We heard that thing explode all the way up her!"

"Explode? What? What happened?" Danny begged, confused beyond belief.

"The Ghost Portal." Maddie explained. "You went inside it and turned it on. You were caught in event horizon when the Portal became active."

"So maybe a 'on/off' button in the inside of you're insane little 'Ghost Portal' was a bad idea in retrospect?" the ever cocky Jazz lectured.

"Well, it wasn't my worst idea!" Jack said in his defense. "Remember the Fenton Soft Serve Cannon?"

"Didn't that thing put a cup of ice cream through the wall?" said Danny.

"Yes! But it make very good soft serve."

Maddie cleared her throat, getting everyone's attention. She looked at Danny with a piercing gaze. "What I want to now is why you went into the Ghost Portal in the first place?"

Danny's mind froze faster than an early 1980's PC. He grabbed at the sheets of his bed, nervously balling them up in his hands. "W-what about Tucker and Sam? Where are they?"

"We told them to go home after we made sure you weren't dead." Jack said flatly. "We thought it best."

"Oh…well, I just…they way you guys acted after it didn't work, I…kinda wanted to see if I could fix it." Danny said, giving out a small half-truth.

"That was stupid and reckless of you!" Maddie shouted. "You could have very well been killed. You shouldn't handle things you don't understand. I'm going to go down to the lab and check out your test results."

"Test results?"

"We took a blood sample to see if the accident had any adverse reactions to your body." Maddie explained. She got up out of Danny's computer chair, nearly bumping her head on a hanging model rocket, and left the room.

Danny looked down, a feeling of shame and embarrassment weighing heavy on his heart. That's when he noticed something odd. "Um, Dad? Where's my haz-mat suit?"

"Oh, we think it might have been atomized when the Ghost Portal activated."

"Which just goes to show you that you should not be experimenting with stuff like this!" Jazz proclaimed, shaking her head as she headed for Danny's door. She looked over her shoulder and smiled. "Glad your okay little bro."

Jack looked at Danny with an uncertain look in his eyes. "Look Danny, don't tell your mother I said this but…I think that was pretty cool of you. See you later son."

With that, Jack hurried from Danny's room, leaving the teenager all alone, and very, very confused.

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"Well, it appears that you are in perfect health aside from a slightly elevated leave of electrolytes." Maddie said, holding a sheet of printer paper in her hand.

"Sooo, I can still go to school?" Danny asked, putting his Ultraman comic book down on his nightstand.

"Yep, sorry about that." Jack said, genuinely sorry for his son, then sorry for himself after Maddie elbowed him in his gut.

Danny shrugged, only upset that he would probably have to put up with Dash and his cronies on Monday. A wave of dizziness quickly washed over Danny like a flash of lightening. "Hey, guys, I'd like to try a get some sleep. I'm feeling pretty tired."

"Alright dear, sleep tight." Maddie said before kissing Danny on his forehead, much to his displeasure.

"Night son." Jack smiled and walked out of the room after Maddie, closing the door behind him.

Danny got up out of his bed and shed himself of his clothes, dropping them on the floor unceremoniously, before wiping his forehead, feeling sweat dampen his skin. He walked to his wall, flipped the light switch off and jumped back into bed, curling up in his blankets, feeling unusually cold.

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Well here it is people! My promised Danny Phantom fanfic! I can't promise that the updates will be rapid fire, nor can I grantee that you will like the alterations to the Danny Phantom mythos I'm going to make, but I promise I'll try and stay as true as I can to the characters.

If you liked this, please drop a review and check out some of my other stuff on my profile page.


	2. Changes

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Changes Changes

As Led Zeppelin would say, over the hills and far away, something dark and most wicked had awoken with a sudden start. The sensation he had felt shoot through his body, it had been so similar. So similar to what he had felt so long ago. Could it be?

The dark, wicked thing rushed down cold stone steps to a chamber deep beneath the earth. An emerald light shone in the center of the chamber, illuminating a black cauldron. The wicked thing glided over to the bubbling, black cauldron passing a hand over the surface of the glowing green liquid.

The surface stilled for just a moment, before it began to churn and froth more violently than before. A blighted mist rolled out from the cauldron, spreading across the cold, stony floor.

An image, blurry at first, but gradually grew clearer and clearer, formed upon the shining green surface of the seemingly magical water.

The wicked thing's eyes grew wide at what he saw. A child? A child?

The wicked thing sat back slowly in a high backed, overstuffed chair before the cauldron and steepled it's fingers. Most interesting. Most, interesting indeed.

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Danny's night had been most restless with unrelenting nightmares and demons that haunted his brain as it trudged through the misty muck of sleep and into consciousness. Slowly he sat up, rubbing his soar eyes and made a sound of displeasure upon feeling his sweat soaked pajamas clinging to his clammy skin.

He slid out of bed with a groan and a yawn, not bothering to make his bed before he got a nice hot shower to wash away the grime. Danny padded out of his room, not really remembering, or even thinking about, opening his door, merely acting on autopilot. Turning left, Danny past his sister's room and reached the bathroom door. Not really thinking or remembering opening or closing the bathroom door, Danny entered the washroom, which was surprisingly simple.

A shower/bathtub was built against the far wall with a simple blue with white dots rubber curtain, a white porcelain toilet with a roll of toilet paper sitting on a metal holder on the left side of the commode, a hamper which was starting to smell a little mildewy, and finally a sink with a medicine cabinet nailed above it next to the toilet.

Danny peeled off his pajamas and tossed them, well he really just dropped them without any sign of energy, into the hamper and pulled back the shower curtain. He groped for the tap to turn on the hot water. With a twist, water spurted from the showerhead, spraying in an arc to the back of the shower.

Pulling back the shower curtain all the way, the youngest Fenton stepped into the arcing water. And then promptly jumped in shock, feeling the icy stream smacking him in the side of his body.

Now fully awake, Danny threw up his arms to block the ice-cold water and glared at the tap, finding that he had indeed turned on the hot water. "Geez Jazz, you think you could save me some hot water?"

Sighing, Danny resigned himself to a cold shower. Danny picked up a black, red labeled bottle with textured sides and popped the top with his thumb. He held out one hand and rolled his head, hearing and feeling a pop in his neck. The next thing he heard was a heavy, hollow thunk, followed by a sharp pain in his left pinky toe.

With a hiss, Danny jerked his left leg back and looked down at the floor of the shower and found that the thing that had hit his toe was the bottle of body wash that had apparently slipped from his grasp.

He growled in annoyance, snatching up the bottle before too much of the green gel oozed from the top. Danny squeezed a large glob of the body wash into his open hand, closed the top, put it back on the rack, and lathered his thin frame with the gel, which formed a thick white foam.

After spreading over his body, Danny rinsed himself off; a feeling of cleanliness came over him. After all the foam had been washed off, Daniel reached for the valve to turn off the water, grabbed at it and…missed! Danny gave a befuddled look. Was his depth perception going? At his, age? He shrugged and grabbed the valve, bending down further this time, and turned it counterclockwise, shutting off the flow of frigid water.

Danny pulled back the curtain, stepped out of the shower onto a fuzzy floor-mat with a bright green ghost embroidered in the center and grabbed one of the soft white towels (_Fenton_ Towels according to his father), and proceeded to vigorously dry himself.

After he was dry, or dry enough, he wrapped the towel around his waist and exited the bathroom, quickly moving down the hall and back into his room. Closing the door, he tossed the towel on his bed and opened his closet door. He grabbed a pair of faded blue jeans and a black t-shirt and closed the sliding door. He tossed them on his bed and opened his dresser's top door and took out a pair of plain white boxer shorts and plain white socks and tossed them on the bed, landing right on top of his shirt and pants.

Danny dropped his towel, which pooled around his feet. Naked and feeling rather cold, Danny moved to his bed and quickly dressed himself.

Danny picked his towel back up and balled it up and went back to the bathroom, and dropped the towel into the mildew smelling hamper. Finally, he hurried down stairs, his stomach growling all the way.

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The kitchen air was still thick with the scent of fried bacon and eggs with the slightest hint of toast. Danny had been hoping to see a plate full, of said vittles, only to be sorely disappointed at the only trace of them were greasy dishes in the sink and used pans sitting on the range.

Jack was passed out on the coach, snoring not so softly while the news, what station Danny didn't know or care, played on the television. Maddie was no were to be seen, but sounds coming from the basement indicated a very likely location. Jazz was probably out for her morning jog, or at the library.

Danny just sighed, noting the time as 8:45 in the morning. He got a small bowl from the cupboard and grabbed a box of Captain Crunch and put them on the table. Pulling out a chair, Danny poured some of the supposedly treasure chest shaped cereal bits into the small bowl and poured milk that he had gotten from the fridge on top of it.

Lazily, he mixed the cereal about in the bowel, making each bit and bite coated in just a small amount of milk. Danny sighed as he scooped up a spoonful of the yellow cereal and popped it into his mouth. True to its name, the cereal crunched loudly with each bite.

He leaned forward, rested the side of his head in his left palm and propped his elbow on the table. After breakfast, he would probably go for a walk or something. His body felt restless and tingled like tiny needles were poking his skin.

As Danny brought a second spoonful of cereal to his mouth, something most peculiar happened. Almost as if the table had been pulled out from under his arm, Danny fell forward with a gasp, his head smacking hard against the table, knocking over the salt and peppershakers and causing his bowel to shake and slop milk and cereal on the table.

Groaning, Danny rubbed his head. The black haired youth brushed it off and picked his spoon up off the floor and cleaned up the spilled cereal and milk with a paper napkin off the table.

After disposing of the napkin and getting a clean spoon, Danny finished his cereal and decided that he really needed some fresh air. As he walked out of the kitchen, he caught his reflection in the mirror hanging next to the clock. Or, well, his _lack _of one really. He stopped dead in his tracks, jaw dropped. Suddenly, like it had always been there, he saw his reflection appear in the glass.

Danny shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. "Boy, I really do need some air!" He left the house, closing the door gently, his father still snoring like a chainsaw between muttering what sounded to "fudge". The man needed help.

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The streets of Amity Park were neither dirty, nor were what one could consider clean. The sidewalk had a fine layer of grim and was littered with empty burger and candy wrappers with the occasional "what-the-hell-is-that-thing-oh-sweet-merciful-God-honey-run-I-think-it's-moving-towards". They were rarely crowded, most people either taking their car or a bus to wherever they wanted to go, but on certain days, it would be like fighting your way through quicksand.

Amity Park was a small city with a number of large parks, surprising as that may be, scattered throughout it and a few trees and flowers planted around main-street. The business district was the second largest section of the city, featuring a wide area of towering buildings and market places.

The largest area was undoubtedly the Industrial Park. Most prominent of the multitude of chemical plants and manufacturing factories was Axion. Named after the theoretical elementary particle, Axion was the largest producer of aerospace technology in the world.

Surrounding its several miles perimeter was a ten-foot tall, chain-link electrified fence with twenty-foot tall guard towers spaced roughly one hundred feet apart. Patrolling from atop the towers were armed golems, too large to be called men but too small to be called giants, their faces hidden by full face Plexiglas shields.

If, in the unlikely event one was to get by the electric fence and armed guards, Axion was a fortress all of itself. Massive steel plated doors reinforced with a thin layer of adamantium stood unmovable at the north, south, east and west entrances, the south and north being strictly loading areas gave a chilling testimony of what could lay within the tower walls.

The windows, the few and far between, absorbed light into their polished black surfaces.

Mounted on the roof were hundreds of specially made vents and air conditioning units that contained hundreds of progressively tighter knit filters, less about keeping out containments then they were about keeping out micro spy cameras mounted on robo-squito's, which were themselves developed by a micro branch of Axion.

Inside the compound was even more threatening, or more appropriately, depressing than the outside. Sterile white walls and floors were all the three hundred some employees could look forward to greeting their eyes when they entered. The only thing that broke the soul shattering monotony was the occasional map or directory nailed to the walls.

The plant was divided up into fourteen above ground areas and seventeen underground areas, called "cores", where the major research and development occurred.

Down within the deepest underground core of the plant were where the truly wondrous, and terrifying. To scratch the surface of Axion's true nature was to risk one's life. For decades, Axion had put on a friendly public face, never letting the truth about what they did slip from the lips of anyone. Those that even contemplated an act of betrayal against the company vanished.

The doors of the elevator opened wide on the bottom floor of Core 17, hissing as they slid into place in the wall. Harrison Gray, dressed in a fine Italian made pin strip suit, stepped out of the lift. His face was the picture of seriousness and stress.

Around him the hum of machines and crackle of electricity thrummed against his ears and rattled his glasses. Devices and tools lay scattered on huge tables seemingly placed randomly about the room, something that perturbed Mr. Gray to no end as he made his was through the sea of science.

He stopped at a computer-sealed door at the other end of the room and pulled a plastic card of plain and forgettable design from his pocket and swiped it through the lock. A panel above the lock opened a small screen was pushed out by a mechanical arm. A grid lit up on its surface with two beams of light moving across its surface, one side to side and the other up and down.

Removing his glasses, Gray leaned in and pressed his right eye on the center of the screen, trying not to wince as the twin beams crossed over his retina. Putting his glasses back on as he resumed a more proper posture, the screen retracted back into the wall and a second panel opened below the lock, revealing a small panel with a much smaller screen on its top right corner.

He pushed his right thumb on the screen, holding it for but two seconds before retracting at the same time as the pad was pulled back into the wall. Beside the lock, yet a third panel opened, allowing a sharp metal nettle to exit the wall.

Harrison bit his lip and pressed his index finger against the tip of the spike, drawing blood. He stuck his finger in his mouth, sucking on it to sooth the mild pain. The blood stained needle retracted back into the wall. This was followed by a beep and popping noise as the door before him opened up.

Some might say that the security placed on that single door was most excessive. Harrison Gray said it was not enough. Not for a level 17 project.

The room he entered was much, much, _much,_ than the one previous. Filled with fluorescent lights and machines so complex that even those that made them were probably unsure of their intended purposes (which was just what Axion liked), Harrison smiled at the sight of countless men scurrying about as he entered the room. Not the kind of fatherly, friendly smile that you would expect to see, but one of sadistic pleasure that came from the knowledge that people feared you.

Strutting more confidently now, Harrison took in the sight of the room few rarely ever saw. For the most part, it was a massive circle that was equal, if not greater in size than the surface complex. At the border of the room was a wrap, around metal barrier were a window would normally be seen. Noting a gloss cover the metal shield, Harrison deduced that it was in truth, behind glass panes.

Sporadically placed around the metal shield were large consoles of extremely high tech and almost alien design. Ray Bradbury would probably be most jealous if he ever had a chance to see the devices. If he was still alive that is.

Men in white lab coats stood before the consoles, pressing buttons and monitoring glowing screens. None of them took notice of Harrison's presences. This would soon change.

Loudly, he cleared his throat and in a stern, commanding voice, said, "I'm here to see Dr. Luther!"

The scientists stationed at the many consoles took notice, nearly having simulations heart attacks. The only one that didn't age twenty-seven years at the sudden disturbance was a red haired man, hunched over a console, utilizing a pair of joysticks and focusing intently on a screen on the wall before him.

"Over here," Luther said in an impatient growl.

Harrison Gray walked over to Luther, feeling just ever so slightly miffed at his reaction to him. "Dr. Luther, I was told that I was to speak to you."

Luther finally stood up and faced him. Luther was a man past his prime. Heavy bags under his eyes and wrinkled face showed his age to be most likely in the mid-sixties. Thin streaks of silver could be seen on his scalp.

"Mr. Gray, as you know, Core 17 is for projects of only the highest importance and security."

"Get on with it." He replied.

Luther fought back a sneer and stepped past the large black man toward a second consol next to the one he was previously working on. He leaned over this one just like the previous on and worked the controls while still talking.

"As the newest senior executive, I am forced to make you aware of even the highest level projects, or lowest level as it may be." Luther smiled crookedly. "Hubris is probably my biggest, and only, flaw. This project irritates all the more."

Harrison snorted, crossing his arms over his chest. "What is the project?"

Luther faced his superior with a mad grin and wily eyes. His hand rested on a small red button, which he pressed with his index finger. Suddenly, the sound of whining gears filled the room and pulsing red lights momentarily blinded him.

Through squinted eyes, Mr. Gray saw the metal barrier part horizontally and retract upwards and downwards simultaneously. When they had fully retracted, Gray marveled at the sight.

Another room, far large and surprisingly spherical in design was beyond the circular area. The walls of the spherical room were smooth and shining, coated with what could have gold. Going around the center of the sphere was a six-foot wide ledge for men to walk on.

From the sides of the room, long robot arms, controlled from the inner circle, worked upon a series of gigantic, half finished metal rings, placing and welding together steel beams and fixing complex wiring. The three half-rings were part of a single mechanism, apparently designed to become a super sized gyro of some sort, each ring progressively smaller that the first.

Luther threw his arms wide upon, smiling madly. "Behold, Project Rynkar!"

* * *

Danny's stomach had yet to settle from the mirror incident. Was he losing his mind? Maybe the portal had screwed with his brain. Absent mindedly, Danny kicked an empty can that had rolled out of an ally way, watching it bounce down the street with a _cling_ and a _clang._ "Should I talk to Jazz about this?" Danny stopped dead. "Okay, yeah, I'm definitely going crazy!"

Tucker and Sam were better options. They wouldn't think he was crazy. Well, probably little, but they wouldn't act all weird like Jazz would.

With a heavy heart and rattled brain, Danny kept walking, not really looking were he was going. A police car appeared out of the corner of his eyes. The car was in idle and the two officers inside looked to be drinking coffee.

Suddenly Danny double over clutching, his, stomach in pain. He gasped from the bizarre sensation that radiated out from his gut, like a sledgehammer had hit him from the inside. Vision blurring, the teenager stumbled about with his coordination lost. Goosebumps erupted over his skin, tingling his skin. A deathly cold crept up from his belly, worming thin tendrils into all parts of his body, freezing his lungs and stabbing at his heart.

Then he fell. Darkness consumed his mind as his body lost its strength. His muscles turned into jelly and bones into mush. Danny smacked the pavement hard, jarring him back into full consciousness for a scant moment.

As his brain fizzled out, a single thought managed to form in his mind, he was going to die. The rest was silence.

* * *

Danny existed, but at the same time, did not exist. All about him was still darkness. It was strange. Was this the afterlife? Dang, he'd been barking up the wrong tree if it was. Maybe it was supposed to be Hell? Not as painful as it was supposed to be though, if it was Hell.

Was this his fate? Too be in a state of existence and nonexistence forever? Memories flooded what was still together. Sam, Tucker, his Mom and Dad, Jazz, all the people dear to him. Everything they had ever done together, every laugh, every test, both academic and personal, every anger shout, every reconciliation, every hug and kiss, every not so quiet family dinner.

It was so unfair. He didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve to die!

It came into being before him. No flash of light, no explosion, no grand declaration of power. It simple came to be. A blue, heatless flame, that flickered from ethereal winds. It was terrifying. It was comforting. It was freezing. It was burning. It was joy. It was anger. It was freedom. It enslavement. It was war. It was peace. It was invention. It was suppression. It was _everything_!

The azure light warped and twisted. Black eyes and black, wicked smile formed through it. From its sides, two impossibly long and spindly limbs of blue flame erupted, massive claws on each of the arms.

A thunderous voice, wonderful and terrible, came from everywhere and nowhere. "Child! Be…**REBORN**!" The blue hands of flame crashed down upon him.

* * *

" 'Eh, Reggie, check that kid over there!" Collin said, nudging his partner with his elbow.

Reggie cursed, almost spilling his hot coffee on his uniform. "Damn it, watch it! Huh, looks like his trippin' on acid."

Collin shook his head sadly. "What in the world's wrong with kids these days?"

"I don't know man." Reggie sipped from his cup, pondering whether or not they should actually do anything about it. Most they could do was restrain him so he didn't hurt himself or anyone else. Didn't even know for sure if he was on drugs, could have just been having a seizure. Either way, they should probably stop him and call an ambulance. He put his cup of coffee in a cup holder and popped open his door, telling Collin to do the same.

The two Amity police officers, hands near their pistols, walked toward the probably high teenager. Collin raised a hand and called out to him, but he did not respond. That was when he collapsed.

"Ah Jesus!" he said, both him and Reggie rushing toward him. He looked to Reggie and was about to tell him to get on the horn about an ambulance when something most unusual happened.

First was the crackling and hissing from the street lamps. The officers watched as the lights flickered on and off up and down the streets. The air grew colder and colder, and the lamps began to emit sparks, spewing rouge spurts of electricity into the air. Fine cracks formed on the glass cases as the sparking and flickering became more violent, then every single lamp exploded in a shower of hot glass and dancing electricity. The police officers screamed and hollered in fear, covering their heads with their arms.

"What the Hell's going on?" shrieked Reggie.

"How should I know!"

A bright green light engulfed the two, sending their panicked minds into an absolute frenzy of fear and confusion. When the light receded, they saw the child, now engulfed in the green light, rising from the ground, jerky and howling in seeming agony. Arcs of emerald light burst from his form, ripping across the ground.

The two barely avoided a large stream that cut between them, melting the pavement and sending hot asphalt flying. The energy arc ripped into the squad car, going half way through the armored vehicle, before it erupted in flames, the shockwave knocking them to the ground.

Collin braced himself on his knee drawing his gun, leveling it the emerald entity. "He's a Mutie!" He screamed. Collin squeezed the trigger, the shot drowned out by the roar of the energy. The bullet never even touched him, melting into nothing halfway through its flight.

Reggie had opened fire with his own gun and had as much luck as his partner. "We can't handle this freak on our own!" Reggie shouted, firing another round at the hovering teen.

"No sh-" Collin never finished his sentence as another wave of power smashed into the two, sending their weapons flying from the hands and them falling to the ground.

The energy that covered him had finally dissipated. Trying to focus with a throbbing head, Collin gazed upon the Reborn.

* * *

Power. Intense, overwhelming power flooding his body was all that Danny felt as he opened his eyes like a newborn pup. The world, itself look different. Buildings appeared distorted, weak and malleable. The sky was a massive swirling pool of colors, blending together into a single beautiful canopy. The trees and grass pulsed with strange, warm light from each blade and stem. And the two men before him, they were something else entirely. An aura of yellows and blacks surrounded their bodies.

Danny recognized them as police officers. Police officers that screamed at him, barking out orders to him, calling him a Mutant, pointing guns at him…firing them at him!

"No!" He yelled, his voice distorted and almost dreamlike. In defense he threw his arm up over his face. His hands, his pure white hands, shone green for a moment before twin beams of the light fired from his palms, disintegrating the flying bullets and traveling to the guns.

The beam's struck with deadly precision, making the barrels exploded in the policemen's hands. They screamed in pain, dropping what was left of their guns, nursing burned and bloody hands.

Danny started hyperventilating, fear pouring from every fiber of his body. He looked upon his trembling hands, faint emerald residue still floating about his digits. Danny looked down, truly looked down and saw himself, floating high above the ground.

The human mind can only take so much stress before something happens. Some call it, snapping, loosing it, or going crazy. For Danny, it was something new. He screamed louder than he ever had, thrashing about in the air in panic before jetting away, out of control, far from the two officers that still clutched wounded hands.

* * *

From its lair, the Wicked Thing smiled sadistically. It leaned back in the chair, twisted satisfaction filling its black heart. It was time.

See, see! It's not dead! I got another chapter up! Sorry it took so long, but a whole lot has been going on so...

Anyway, please drop a review and stay tuned!


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